Quietly Fading in Darkness
by Saera Of Chaos
Summary: Neo always knew, with Torchwick dead, she would fade quietly into the background. Now her chance to stop that from happening is here, along with a new exciting profession of being an assassin, and she is determined to take it. Even if it costs her life, and anyone else's.
1. Chapter 1: The Assassin

Neo smiled at her target disarmingly. He would probably go over to her table, smile at her, then find her blade in his throat. One of the benefits of working in Junior's club is he didn't care if she murdered someone there, as long as he didn't get the authorities hearing about it.

Neo's target meandered over to her spot at the end of the bar. He grinned, like she expected. For some reason, everyone loved to smile at the ice cream girl.

"Heya there. Looks like you need a drink, amiright?" The man smelled like alcohol, making Neo cringe visibly. She looked at him in disgust as her umbrella was discarded, leaving a sabre a yard long.

Before she stabbed him, Neo looked at his expression of shock, the one every target wore when she unsheathed her deadly weapon. It would have made her laugh if it wasn't for the fact she was a mute.

She grabbed the body and carried it like a caring niece would, carrying home her unconscious uncle. She had an ID made for this type of job, a scroll she updated to be a new person for each catch. She nodded to Junior on the way out, letting him know she had finished her task.

* * *

Neo carefully polished her sword, cleaning it of all the blood she had gotten on it from her kill. Although the metal was infused with dust, it was still possible for the blade to rust, a quality Neo despised. She set the oil soaked rag back in her weapon maintenance kit and closed it, ensuring the precious oil wouldn't leach out. Since the Grimm appeared in overwhelming numbers, Hunters had been using it up so fast with all the fighting Grimm that the price was skyrocketing.

The blade gleamed in the candlelight of her apartment, and Neo admired it for a while before sheathing it into her parasol. Another thump echoed on the roof of her apartment as the night Grimm attacked. Night made the monstrous creatures even more aggressive, forcing her to keep her weapon handy.

She'd holed up in a ruined apartment that acted as her safe house and a place where her deals could be made in secrecy. It was dingy and mostly destroyed by the Grimm, but it suited Neo's purposes. The previous owners hadn't left much, other than the bed frame and torn mattress. The Grimm had also destroyed most of the windows, and when she had first found the place, she'd been forced to hastily board them all up before nighttime.

Being on the top floor also made it safer from the land dwelling Grimm, but the Griffons and Nevermores were more likely to attack. Though she had never been very afraid of them, since she had flown through the air on her umbrella, with them hounding her, she had been fearful of them almost every night and day.

Neo startled as another screech echoed through the poorly barricaded windows. A corner of the curtain had fallen low, and the candlelight was drawing the active Grimm. Neo got up and pulled the curtain into place again. She looped a loose thread around a small hook to keep it from falling, though it would fall many times again during the night.

She could easily fight off one or two Grimm, a horde would overwhelm her. The Grimm invasion hadn't been hard on her, but it had been easier when Roman was alive. _We were good at watching each other's backs._ Neo thought bitterly, again wishing that he was there with her. They had been best of friends, oddly enough, considering the fact that he had talked too much and she hadn't talked at all.

Neo shook her head to clear it of the memories clinging to her like cobwebs. She leaned against the wall, brushing away a silent tear. She went to the slanting door to ensure that it was locked,feeling the loss of her partner keenly. The candle flame puffed out of existence as she blew on it, then lay down on the mattress to sleep.

* * *

Everyone in the ruined city hurried to do their business, almost like they thought a Grimm would appear out of nowhere. _Well, that's technically a possibility,_ Neo thought as she unlocked the door to her apartment for that day's business, _but a very small possibility._

 _Most surprising was the fact that business is booming for me right now, considering that we all live in a Grimm apocalypse. It's true, continuous business was hard to come by for me, and the money's scarcely good enough to live off of, but it has sustained me for longer than I had thought it would._

Neo was startled from her reverie as a pair of feet climb the rickety stairs, presumably the client returning with money for her kill. To her surprise, it was Junior.

"Neo, there's been a slight problem." Junior said.

She pulled out her scroll, typing a reply. " _What kind of problem?"_

 _A/N: I'll probably continue working on the chapters for a while as a side project, until they're reasonably O.K. or until I can't improve them any more._


	2. Chapter 2: The Spy

"You know the Huntress who's leading the whole restore-the-city effort? Goodwitch, I think. She's sent some official warning out to everyone still in the city, telling everyone that murder is still a crime." Neo smirked at this, amused by the Huntress's infallible dedication to upholding the law.

Junior looked at her before adding, "She mentioned your newest removal, the one you got tonight. You know what this means, don't you?"

Neo stopped smirking at that. Generally, her kills were discovered after a week or so, not a few hours. She typed a new message on her scroll, "We have a new enemy."

* * *

Neo watched silently as the bar filled up with customers. This time, she wasn't here to fill a contract, she was here to find the spy that had found her kill so effectively. She wasn't in her usual white attire; she had disguised herself with short blonde hair and a black leather jacket.

Neo watched one of the younger customers sit by her side. He nodded at Junior, a clear indication he had been there before, since Junior knew what the boy was asking for.

She narrowed her green eyes as Junior arranged one of the bottles on the shelf to face in her direction. A prearranged signal, telling her that this boy was one of the customers that Junior had suspected of spying.

The boy leaned over the counter, sipping on his drink. "You should be careful," he murmured, "There's a bounty on your head. Just posted this afternoon. An assassin has been hired, the one who has been killing almost every day." Neo watched as he slid away from the counter, paying Junior the fee for the drink.

Neo silently grabbed her umbrella before following the boy out.

* * *

Neo sliced at the boy, then blocked his counter attack with her parasol. The boy gasped as the blade sliced his forearm, barely a scratch, but Neo had coated the blade with a powerful sedative. The boy backed off from the fight to examine the cut, shallow, but bleeding heavily. His shirt was soaked with sweat, making it cling to his form, hindering his movements.

"You were the assassin!" The boy gasped, trying to steady himself against the back wall of the alley Neo had trapped him in. She smirked at him as she allowed her disguise to fall. She bowed sarcastically before jumping back into the fight.

Now that her drug was in the boy's bloodstream, she just had to get his heartrate up and she would have him asleep in no time. After a moment, Neo could see the boy was visibly slowing down; his twin daggers were parrying less and less of Neo's attacks, when their blades met in the air, he stumbled more and more often.

After a few more attacks from Neo, his eyes were drooping, then hecould barely stand. As his eyes closed, Neo darted behind him to catch his fall. She swiftly tied his arms and legs together and picked up the boy.

As she picked her way through the streets back to her apartment, she smiled. Soon, this enemy would know that she was a force to be reckoned with.

 _A/N: Long time, no read. I'll be going back and improving grammar and spelling and such in the first chapter soon._


	3. Chapter 3: The Information

**Warning: Chapter contains some torture**

Neo sat silently in a shadowy corner of her apartment, watching the unconscious boy. She had tied him to a chair, intending to extract information as soon as he awoke. There was one problem she had encountered; how to ask him the questions that would give her the information she wanted.

Traditionally, she had been the one who _convinced_ people to talk, while Roman had asked the questions. A wave of sadness passed over Neo as she remembered Roman's refusal to get his hands dirty. They had been good friends and had worked well together. She felt a sliver of satisfaction as she remembered how well they had beaten Red on the flying ship, up until the silly kid had opened her parasol, resulting in her flying away while Red had blown up the ship, killing Roman.

Caught up in her memories, Neo didn't immediately notice the kid awaken. Once she noticed however, she mentally reviewed her plan. She stood quietly and pulled out her scroll to type the first question she had for him.

" _Your name?"_ She stepped forward and showed the screen to him. _It's going to take a while to get through this,_ she thought.

"Russel Thrush, Hunter." He answered proudly, as if it was something amazing to be a Hunter.

T _hat was quick, almost too quick…_ Neo pondered this, but guessed from his pride that he wasn't lying. She typed her next question, agonizingly slow. " _Who do you work for?"_

"Why should I tell you? That would be like betraying the whole kingdom, since you're probably gonna assassinate her."

 _Well that was easy, he gave away gender and importance all in one sentence. Presumably that Goodwitch again. Why would she be spying if she already knows there's an assassin? She probably knows it's me too. Unless it's someone else who doesn't know about me, but then who would it be?_ She couldn't think of anyone else, so she filed the information away to think over later.

She deleted her question, then typed a new one. " _What were you doing in the Club?"_ By now, the boy had figured out that he shouldn't give information away and didn't say anything. Neo smiled sadistically. She had thought it would've been too easy, and she wouldn't get to have fun torturing him.

Pulling out the blade of her parasol, she stabbed through the center of his hand, right between the bones, causing him to scream in pain. It was quite a girly scream and Neo would have laughed if she could have.

"Okay! I'll tell you! I was told to get information for my boss. She wanted to know who the assassin worked for. That was all! You gotta believe me!" His whimpering was annoying Neo, and she pulled the blade out with a snarl on her face. He caught the hint and shut his mouth.

 _Hm, so Goodwitch wants to know who I work for. It can't be someone else now that I know what he was doing._ Neo typed the next question; " _What did you find out?"_

"Not much," he admitted, "but I do know that my boss thought the person who caused this mess in Vale might be the assassin's employer or sponsor or something."

" _Where is your boss?"_

"I swore I wouldn't tell anyone." He stubbornly clenched his jaw, looking away.

Neo smiled at his refusal before placing her blade on his arm and cutting into his arm. She then placed the tip of the blade just below his eye, a grin on her lips. She tilted her head sideways, a silent question that carried a grim threat behind it. He closed his eyes and silently shook his head. Neo slowly dug her blade along his cheek, deep enough to meet bone. She continued along his head until she reached his ear. She began to precisely cut the outer ear off. She smiled as the boy began to squirm in his bonds.

"Alright! She's in the safe zone, where the remaining Hunters are stationed." he shouted, then paused. "Why did you get my ear instead of my eye?"

" _You need eyes to read. Last question. How many Hunters are there?"_

"About fifteen." He looked up at Neo with pleading eyes. "You'll let me go now right?"

Neo smiled before nodding. She cut through most of the ropes with her parasol blade, except for the one around his chest. When she went to cut that one, she stabbed him right through his heart, then dragged the blade diagonally down to the right, then up to his shoulder. The final cut went from the original stab through his heart straight down, creating a capital N in his flesh.

She picked up his corpse, then carried it through the streets to the central plaza, where the Hunters were camped out. She teleported to the doorstep, dropped the corpse and teleported out of the plaza. Once back in her safe house, she texted Junior. _Got good info. Will give to you at Club. Sent message to enemies._ He soon replied, _Might want to fix problem soon, Hunters are getting nervous._

Neo grinned at the thought of making hunters nervous, then found a scrap of cloth to polish her blade with. As she sat down to clean her weapon, she thought of Roman. _I'll get revenge for you Roman, even if I die trying._

 _A/N: I'm currently going back and fixing the chapters previous, that'll be done hopefully within the next week. I've already submitted the new and improved Chapter 2, and Chapter 4 will hopefully be done the week after improving Chapter 1._


	4. Chapter 4: The Battle

After a week of hiding and planning, Neo still hadn't found a good way to get into the Hunters' complex. She had considered using her teleport semblance, but she had no clue where she would end up if she tried teleporting into a place she hadn't seen before. A full-scale assault would leave her dead without reaching her target. If she bribed her way past the first set of guards, she thought she might make it far enough in to kill the target, but not escape with her life. She decided to leave that as a last resort plan.

As Neo scanned her supplies that she had amassed in the months since the fall of Vale, she realized she was dangerously low on several necessary resources. Among her primary concerns, Neo desperately needed Lien, and lots of it. Since her message to the Hunters, they had brutally enforced the laws of Vale as if it were still a city and not a grey rubble pile, resulting a sudden stop in clients and income. Neo was extremely annoyed by this, as she was left with just enough money to buy a chocolate bar. Junior had been unable to help her, since he had been arrested a few days earlier for selling stolen items.

As she was contemplating her plan for getting more money, there was a knock on her door. She jumped up to open the door. A blonde woman stood shivering in the drafty stairwell, carrying a small wad of Lien. Neo recognized her purpose and allowed the woman to enter the apartment.

The woman turned around, taking in the sight of the decrepit room. She stopped once Neo tapped her foot sharply. She tilted her head in a silent question as the woman fumbled with her scroll.

"There's a man I want you to kill for me. I have a picture…" She showed Neo a picture of a man with bright blue hair. "He should be at the Club tonight. His name is Ayibe. I can give you ten thousand Lien for it." Neo was surprised by the large sum of money, though she didn't let it show on her face.

She nodded, and held out a hand for the money. The woman gave it up without a fight. Neo smiled and waved the woman out of the room. She picked up her blade with gleeful exuberance at her good fortune.

* * *

The Club was packed full of people as Neo weaved her way through the colorful crowds. Many of the people there had blue hair, though none were her target. She began to wonder if her client had been mistaken. Neo checked over the dance floor one last time before turning to leave.

As the dancing people shifted, she caught a glimpse of the woman who had given her the contract. She caught Neo's eye and smiled in a way that made it clear to Neo that she had been tricked.

Neo picked up her weapon and discarded the parasol that concealed her blade. The people around her screamed and panicked, then ran for the exit. The other woman flicked out her own weapon, a riding crop. Neo instantly knew that the woman was Goodwitch. More of the dancing crowds began to notice the weapons and flee. In moments, the only people left were the two women.

Neo glared at the Huntress, and found an expression of contempt on her opponent's face. She was furious at Goodwitch's arrogance. Any sane Huntress who knew how well Neo fought would have turned around, but not this one.

 _She thinks that she can beat me? We'll see about that._ Neo thought, defiant.

Neo flicked her sword at Goodwitch, testing the defences. Neo frowned as Goodwitch didn't flinch. She teleported behind her in a quick burst of power, then sliced at Goodwitch's unprotected back. Her sword bounced against the aura of the Huntress, then teleported to the side as Neo's foe turned to strike at her.

Neo smashed her parasol against Goodwitch's head, then sliced at her legs. Both attacks were repelled by the Huntress's aura, though the blow to the head had stunned Goodwitch. Neo received her own blow on the arm, and another on her leg.

Neo gasped in pain, the riding crop was deceptively strong. She paused her assault to check her aura. The meter on her scroll flashed within the green zone, safe for now. Goodwitch advanced, attacking Neo with a flurry of blows, putting Neo on the defensive. She dodged out of the way, then attacked her opponent's and torso viciously.

Goodwitch flicked her crop at one of the stools by the bar, then pointed it at Neo. She hurriedly dodged as the bar stool flew at her. As more of the chairs flew at her, she was forced to roll to the side.

 _This must be her semblance then. Okay then, new plan. Ahh!_ Neo ducked a stray wine bottle as Goodwitch flung more items at her. Neo scowled and teleported out of the way, hearing her image shatter behind her. She swung her blade at Goodwitch as hard as she could. Neo smiled as a satisfying crack echoed through the Club as Goodwitch's aura was destroyed. Goodwitch retaliated with a smart whip to the side of Neo's face. Another smack hit her arm, and another crack broke the near silence as Neo's own aura was shattered.

Neo flipped away from Goodwitch and sprinted behind a steel pillar to recover her breath. After a moment, the pillar was crumpled by Goodwitch's semblance. Neo rolled away as Goodwitch tore the pillar from the floor and ceiling. The pillar was thrown at Neo, who teleported away, only to collapse from exhaustion. Nearby, Goodwitch was leaning against another pillar, gasping.

Neo struggled up from her knees, lifting her sword into a defensive position. Goodwitch also stood, though the large use of her semblance had left her pale and shaking. Neo teleported close enough to strike at Goodwitch, slashing her back. The building shuddered as Goodwitch slammed Neo into another pillar, causing it to topple. Bits of ceiling were falling around them as the building began to collapse.

Neo picked herself up, then, using the last of her strength, she teleported in front of her foe. She slashed at Goodwitch's throat. Neo jumped back to avoid the riding crop, only to be knocked down by a large chunk of roofing. Her arms were pinned underneath the rubble, and were bleeding heavily. Goodwitch stumbled over to her, then kicked her leg. She shambled off, then somewhere out of Neo's line of sight, Neo heard her fall the ground. Goodwitch coughed wetly, her raspy breathing fading after a minute.

Neo wanted to scream in pain as she slowly bled out. She closed her eyes, waiting for death. Slowly, the pain faded and the weight of the roofing disappeared. Neo opened her eyes slowly, only to find Roman grinning down at her. He offered a hand to her, his green eye glinting under his hat.

"Hey there Neo. Need a hand?" Neo smiled at Roman and took the hand. She pulled herself to her feet. They were on the edge of a forest, and there was a village in the distance. Neo had no clue where they were, though there were growls of Grimm deep in the forest. Roman offered her a familiar pink parasol with a smirk. She took it, eager to adventure with him again.

 _A/N: As you can probably tell, this is the final chapter. Thank you all for reading this story._


End file.
